A division bench of the Kerala High Court on Monday rejected an appeal seeking orders for a CBI probe into the murder in police custody of a youth, Sreejith, at Varappuzha near Kochi in April. The appeal was filed by Akhila, widow of Sreejith (26), after a single-judge bench rejected her petition seeking CBI probe earlier. The division bench dismissed the petition by observing that the investigation being held currently by the State police was progressing in the right direction and that it was satisfied with that. The court also came down heavily on the CBI for making some remarks on the way the police investigation was being conducted.
In response to the argument of Akhila’s counsel that the single-judge bench had rejected the plea for CBI probe without examining the case diary, the Government counsel said the court had taken the decision after examining the diary twice. While the Government claimed that the probe was progressing, Akhila argued that the main culprits were still roaming free.
The CBI, which had earlier told the court that it was ready to probe the case, alleged that the evidences in the case were cooked up by the police. However, the division bench reportedly told the agency that it was not up to it to point out the errors in the police’s investigation and that it should not pose itself as super police.
Sreejith, father of a three-year-old girl, was taken into custody by three officials from the now-disbanded Rural Tiger Force of the police while he was asleep in his house at Devaswompadam, Varappuzha at midnight on April 6 in connection with the suicide of a neighbour. He died at a Kochi hospital on April 9 as a result of alleged third-degree torture in custody.
It was later established that Sreejith was not an accused in the case related to the neighbour’s suicide and that his arrest was a case of mistaken identity. A special probe team had arrested nine police officers in connection with the incident and 11 were suspended from service.